Klarinet Archive - Posting 000202.txt from 1996/11

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Spohr and his concerti
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 11:37:42 -0500

Mark Charette comments on the first Spohr concerto and expresses surprise
that it is not heard more often than it is. I not only agree with Mark
but extend his question to all of his concerti for clarinet (and for that
matter, much of his music as a whole).

Spohr, for reasons that completely elude me, has fallen out of favor.
It is one thing never to have been in favor in the first place but that
is not the case for Spohr. He made it and lost it.

It seems to me that whenever this happens to any composer (Meyerbeer
is another example as is Salieri), the later public as well as the
professional players simply assume that s/he was a flash in the pan
and that, if s/he had anything of substance then s/he would not have
lost it, so why bother to resurrect the dead.

Other composers make it and never lose it, and yet another class simply
never make it.

But Spohr, to my ears at least, wrote lush, beautiful, enchanting
and very romantic music (note: not "but very romantic music") and
there is almost nothing of his that I have heard that I did not fall
in love with.

One of the most exciting pieces - and it uses a clarinet in a prominent
position - is the Spohr Octet for strings and winds, not the Nonet
(which is also a good piece) but the Octet.

The concerti are all a delight, each in its own way. I too am sad
that they are not played more often. Perhaps it is a matter of
contemporary style being unsuited to a work of such blatant and
unashamed romanticism.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================

   
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